By Walter Agnew Moore II

The Rainy Season hit last night. I had most of the windows down on the car, except for the passenger side, so all the tapes on the floorboard underneath the anti-theft device (a pair of raggedy crusty shorts cut from old camo trousers) are all still dry.

The streets were flooded. At home I conducted several interesting unplanned experiments on the ability of water to blow sideways through glass-slat windows. It drummed on the fiberglass panels over my atrium, and a fine mist drifted down over the ferns. Out back, my bike was standing in two inches of muddy water.

The gutter-spouts splashed out toward the street, a smell of sewage. I have been on the roof and know why: a year's worth of mummified cat crap was washing away.

But the house is still pretty dry.

Overall, it was about like a decent Alabama thunderstorm. They say we'll get them every couple of days for the next few weeks. It cooled the place down; I am wearing a long-sleeve flannel shirt this morning.

I wonder if the rain will calm down the driving. Everybody thinks the driving here is wild. Maybe it's because I just lived in France, and then a college town, but the driving here seems about the same as anywhere else. Follow the rules and beware of idiots.

The main difference is the tendency to pile up to four people per vehicle. No, not cars, I am talking about scooters. I have seen four people on a scooter: daddy driving wearing a hard-hat, kid in dad's lap pretending to steer, mom on back with one arm on dad's back and tiny sleeping baby in the other.

Some scooter riders wear real helmets, some don't. A common compromise is the plastic hard-hat. This shows consideration for the paramedics as it gives them a handy container to put pieces of your head in as they clean up the scene of the wreck.

Don't even get me started talking about trucks. I have seen trucks loaded with so many people they looked like they are setting off for the invasion of Russia.

Me, I drive slow. Let the dude behind me beep. Let him pass me going fast. I'd rather have time to see the entire family on a scooter.